Interview with Douglas Burcham (part 1)

Douglas Burcham first describes his education, training and work as an accountant; in particular, work on redevelopment of Lincoln city centre. He joined MKDC in 1972 as a financial appraiser: ‘it was a very good place to work …you were given a chance to do your own thing and you could make some mistakes and not be too severely censured’. In 1974, he joined the Northern area team, with Frank Henshaw and Pete Metcalfe, preparing the 6/1 financial statements for Government approval.

Douglas remembers the City Centre site in 1977 before building started. That year, he joined the CMK team, replacing Bill Clewett; this was the area he was really interested in, given his experience in Lincoln. He was sympathetic to the architects’ view about quality materials; more funds were available to MKDC than to normal local councils, since they worked to the Government-approved Masterplan. He comments that MKDC, with its weekly decision-making meetings and monthly Board meetings was a ‘very slick organisation… a model way of doing the business’. Douglas recalls the insistence of Fred Roche and Frank Henshaw that the Shopping Centre should be built at the large size planned. He comments on later changes: ‘Midsummer Place… has bodged up the original Masterplan … and it will be bodged up more …that’s one of the reasons I left Milton Keynes in ’92, because I thought it would happen’.

He talks of his role in the CMK team: ‘sort of a nuts and bolts man if you like for the Shopping Building and the Station’. His work included negotiations with the Post Office superannuation fund; requests for increased Government funding (for example when the decision was taken to add doors); and negotiations with retailers and contractors. Douglas reported direct to Frank Henshaw on the Shopping Building; he recalls the gradual development of adequate financial control systems and the first production of a computerised financial appraisal programme for the City Centre, using the software Framework. Douglas recalls the debate with Railtrack and the Government before the development of the railway station was agreed. In his opinion, ‘Milton Keynes was supported’ (by the Thatcher government from 1979) ‘…although it was acknowledged that there would be an end date’. They discuss outsiders’ perceptions of Milton Keynes – the Concrete Cows, roundabouts.